Online Reporting, Research & Writing

Google perks for college shopping

Being in college does have its perks. What do I mean? Well after using a guide to search for different data sets with Google’s advanced search method, I found out how to read and understand them. Using this style of research for data makes things a lot easier when planning for your future.

A great example, the different tabs at the bottom shows the demographics, admission, and cost/comments for school in a given school year. In this case it was for the 2011-2012 year in the state of Michigan. After deleting schools that are not public and four-year I was left with 16 colleges, that was a bit shocking to me. I really was not aware that in this state of ours we had only 16 public colleges. I am not sure if that is a small number; I definitely will have to compare that to other states with a comparable populace.

The school that is the most expensive is Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University. I noticed there are extra charges, and this school as per the comment section will have cost relating to in state tuition/ out of state as well as general education requirement which is also not a standard cost. Some of the colleges do not have in-state/in-district transportation cost while others do. And Eastern Michigan is the only college without this expense in-state/in-district misc expenses.

The complete shocker to me was that the University of Michigan Dearborn is the least expensive four-year college. Now I feel better about my decision to continue my education at this college. My continuous debt if it was concrete would surely thank me.

Renowned physicist , author, and mathematician , Stephen Hawking dies

At the age of 76, Stephen Hawking dies inside of his home in Cambridge, England

Stephen Hawking , a man of excellence with in the science realm has died peacefully at the age of 76, in his Cambridge home in England. Hawking was infamous for his vast discoveries with in science, including research on quantum physics and black holes with in our universe.

Outside of his vast research in science topics, he became a published author when he wrote the book ,” A brief history in time: from big bang to black holes”, in the year of 1988. In accordance the the NY Times Newspaper, the book was ” Making the Big Bang Almost Understandable”. It allowed people who did not have the scientific knowledge to regularly understand those concepts, to allow them to gain insight on the world how he perceived it.

This could be viewed as fascinating because of the time and era when this book was published , not allow of information was produced about space, and space travel just had become a process in the works.

Along with his great life, there were some downward spirals that had taken place. Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , or (ALS) for short. Despite his physical handicap, it never affected his brilliant mind, which allowed him to create more new and improved discoveries with in modern day science.

A good example of a curated story

In Ron French’s curated story, he first presented and quoted the topic that Betsy DeVos discussed in the 60 Minute interview. French did not include his opinion in the story; rather, he curated multiple sources that explain how Michigan education is getting worse each year.

As a reader of French’s story, I was convinced by the data provided that the education in Michigan never been worst. French didn’t make any claims in the story; rather, he provided evidences of data, research, and facts that stated to the reader that Michigan education system is only going downward.

French used multiple resources in his story. Two of the resources that French presented in the story are Michigan spent $80 million to improve early reading and NAEP Data Explorer. The first source is Michigan spent $80 million to improve early reading which is one of French’s publications in Bridgemi.com. Second source is NAEP Data Explorer which is retrieved from the nces.ed.gov.

French used different resources in the story to state the facts that indicate that the education system in Michigan is only getting worse each year. The NAEP data showed the academic achievement level across the state of Michigan.

French introduced “contextually links” to make sure the reader knows some information about the source mentioned in the story, also he provided links to the actual source. For instance, Brian Jacob was one of the sources in French’s story. French provided a link to Brian Jacob’s page that has more information about him “…according to the analysis by Brian Jacob, a University of Michigan professor of economics and education.” (French, 2018).

Content curation at its Finest: The case of Alton Sterling Murder

Alton Sterlings Killers won’t be charged!

July 5th, 2016, Alton Sterling was shot and killed by officer Blane Salonomi of the Baton Rouge Police Department for selling cd’s outside of a liquor store. Since this time there have been several witnesses that have come forth , to give personal statements as to what had taken place the day of the murder. People such as the actual owner of the convenience store gave his testament by saying that he had never seen Sterling with a gun , or any weapon at that.

The Attorney General has released statements and personal records regarding the case , and also other pending documents, that are exposed to for public record. This gives great insight from a first person point of view as to what happened, and them being able to give detail as to what actually had took affect that day. It adds value and more credibility to the story that was generated because of the supporting documentation. With this story affecting the more than just the people that are directly involved in the case, it is easy for the truth of this story to be manipulated by other out sources.

Whats the Real With Betsy DeVos

Ron French digs deep into U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos !

Senior writer for Bridge,Ron French, used information and used a interview with U.S. Secretary of Education , Betsy DeVos, asking about the current state of the educational crisis with in the State of Michigan. A special interview was conducted by “60 minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl , where she asked the question to DeVos,” Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better”. DeVos responds saying, ” I don’t know , overall I cannot say that they have all gotten better”.

Ron French proceeds to give supporting details by bringing in out sources that in fact contribute to the statements in which DeVos is saying. Some of his main sources are extracting data from the NAEP ( National Assessment of Education Process) which gives statistical data between the years of 2003-2015, the State of Michigan has been last in its math and reading proficiency. French then brings in other sources of information such as educational budgets , and other professional input.

French introduces continually linked people towards his story such as gaining insight from people such as Brian Jacob, a University of Michigan professor of economics and education, and having a linking story to his biography , and some of this other research pertaining to this data set.